5 Key Stories: 1/21/17 – 1/28/17

Tragedy strikes baseball: Last Sunday was a horrific day for the sport, as Royals right-hander Yordano Ventura and former major leaguer Andy Marte died in separatecar crashes in the Dominican Republic. Ventura became the second active big leaguer to pass away since September, when then-Marlins ace Jose Fernandez lost his life in a boating accident. At 25, Ventura was already an established major league starter and a World Series champion. Marte wasn’t as successful as Ventura stateside, but he did emerge as a star with the KT Wiz of the Korea Baseball Organization over the previous two seasons. He was 33.

The Dodgers find a second baseman: Los Angeles’ monthslong search for help at the keystone finally ended with the addition of Logan Forsythe, whom they acquired from the Rays on Monday. The Dodgers gave up high-end pitching prospect Jose De Leon in a one-for-one swap, which came after they attempted to send the right-hander to the Twins for Brian Dozier.

More name-brand free agents come off the board: It nearly took until February, but infielder Luis Valbuena, reliever Greg Holland and left-hander Brett Anderson finally landed major league deals this week. Valbuena signed a two-year pact featuring $15MM in guarantees with the Angels, whom he played against regularly from 2015-16 as a member of the AL West rival Astros. Valbuena was primarily a third baseman in Houston, but he’ll see plenty of action at first base in Anaheim. Holland, who was a lights-out closer with the Royals before undergoing Tommy John surgery in October 2015, joined the Rockies on an incentive-laden accord that contains a vesting option for 2018. Anderson, whom injury issues weighed down in 2016 as a member of the Dodgers, signed on with another National League superpower – the reigning World Series champion Cubs. His contract is also heavy on incentives.

Decision coming soon on Cardinals-Astros hacking scandal: New details in ex-Cardinals scouting director Chris Correa’s hacking of the Astros’ computer systems came to the fore Saturday. Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is amid a lengthy investigation of the Cardinals, but that could end as early as the upcoming week in light of the publicly released information concerning Correa’s transgressions. The Cards, who fired Correa in 2015, could face some type of punishment for his actions. Correa has been paying a particularly heavy price since last July, when he received a 46-month prison sentence and was hit with a $279K fine.

Mets prepared to entire 2017 with Jay Bruce on their roster: The Mets are loaded with starting-caliber corner outfielders – Yoenis Cespedes, Curtis Granderson, Michael Conforto and Bruce – and that’s likely to remain the case when the season begins. General manager Sandy Alderson has tried to unload Bruce this offseason, but those attempts have gone for naught. As a result, the team informed Bruce that he’ll open the season as its right fielder. While the Mets could have cut the cord on Bruce in November, their decision to exercise his $13MM option came amid uncertainty surrounding Cespedes, who was unsigned at the time.

I doubt they’d want to go back and ship out Bellinger and Yadier Alvarez on top of De Leon for Dozier, even if he has an MVP caliber starting half. I think we’ll be fine with average or slighting above average production from 2B. We already have an MVP candidate, his name is Corey Seager.

I agree that they won’t regret holding on to our young promising arms…losing De Leon sucks, but you do have to give to get and I’m glad they limited the giving…yes of course Forsythe doesn’t have the upside of Dozier but he is a solid option and was acquired for a much lesser package of prospects than Dozier would’ve cost…I disagree with you on the fact that they would’ve had to pay Bellinger and Alvarez on top of De Leon for Dozier though…it would’ve cost one or two more arms not named Alvarez and I think that Bellinger was pretty much untouchable…if they went after Sale I could’ve seen those guys being involved but not so much for Dozier

You’re just speculating on names here but there’s only so many big league rotation spots. If Dozier hits another 40 bombs with a near 5 war with that affordable contract?! It would be impossible not to second guess that, and no one would blame them.

Yeah well the Dodgers proved me wrong last year when they went into spring training with what seemed like 18 starting pitchers lol…I agree if Dozier absolutely rakes it will be a bummer that he wasn’t in our lineup but at the same time I really like that the Dodgers are keeping the prospects they have for the most part…they are valuing high upside SP because time and time again the league has shown us that homegrown, affordable, and controllable arms are a very good thing to have